As we continue to celebrate Women’s History Month, we are highlighting and sharing a bit about Sue Foster.  Sue runs the Deschutes Brewery Cycling Team, one of the biggest and longest-running teams in OBRA. While women running teams this large isn’t too common, we hope her interview inspires and encourages many more women to do the same. Be sure to say hello to Sue and Deschutes Brewery Cycling team next time you see them.

Enjoy!

Team Name?

Deschutes Brewery Cycling Team

Your Name?

Sue Foster

Your role within the team?

Team Captain

How did you first get into cycling and what was your first OBRA race?

I was gifted a Murray Meteor Flight by my parents in 1968. It was set up with double baskets on the built-in rear rack and I used it on my paper route. I’ve been a bike owner/ rider of one sort or another ever since. My first OBRA race was a Thrilla at the Athletic Club of Bend in 2013. I was a late bloomer.

When was the team created?

Legend has it that a handful of guys from the Brewery started riding together a few nights a week after work, and before beers. One thing led to another. This was circa 2011.

What would you say is the best thing about your team?

Why, the sponsorship and support of Deschutes Brewery, of course! But also, the diversity of our riders, the genuine camaraderie, and the fact that we are a CX-specific team, meaning that when September rolls around, we reunite the family, and we are all in for racing and supporting each other for the next 3 months. Our limited time together is totally engaging and fun. Oh, and the beer’s rather good too.

What are a few things you would tell someone who is looking to join your team?

Someone once told me that they heard it was necessary to have a resume of podium results to join our Team, but that is not true. We don’t have results expectations! What we are looking for are riders who want to participate and contribute to the Team. This will require clearing many of your fall weekends to drive hundreds of miles to race your bike. In return for this, we offer great coaching and many great benefits that will help you reach your own personal goals while enjoying the warm support of our Team culture. Racing CX with Deschutes will be one of the most rewarding and fun experiences you will ever have on a bike. 

What is your team’s ethos?

Our Team ethos was originally embodied and established by our founder, former captain, and friend, Colby Nightingale. Colby had a giddy enthusiasm for racing bicycles with his friends. He was competitive by nature but at the end of the day, never held himself to performance expectations. Racing was more about doing what he loved with all the folks he loved, to the best of his ability. His unwavering loyalty and commitment to the Team, the respect and support he showed everyone on and off the racecourse, and his unique ability to lift everybody up to their absolute best, have become the behavioral model and cultural focus we now share, and expect from all our riders.

What is the story behind your team’s kit?

I’m so glad you asked this! We just went through a new kit design process, working with a member of the Deschutes Marketing Group. For 2021, we had a style in mind and integrated a couple of the Brewery’s spring branding initiatives, specifically, a focus on the NW IPA’s and a move to increased can production. The accent colors on the kit are from the “Fresh Squeezed IPA” packaging, and the sublimated pattern across the jersey and shorts is actually rows of pull tabs from a can… It’s super cool!

If your team were to compete in a game show, what gameshow would it be and how would it go?

That’s a tough one. I think with our strong support dynamic, we would do well in a collaborative contest that doesn’t require any training or preparation, like Family Feud. The randomness of the Family Feud questions and answers though could easily become fodder for our elite heckling contingent, and things could go south pretty fast. We’d need to monitor that. In the end, we would crush the competition fair and square, donate the cash prize to a local charity, and brag about winning for at least a year.